"Overview Effect" made its debut at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on Friday, but go behind the scenes to see how Poetic Kinetics made the astronaut

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Festival goers dance in front of “Overview Effect,” a roaming art shaped like an astronaut by Poetic Kinetics, as it roams the field during the opening day of Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio on Friday, April 12, 2019. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCN­G)

That would be the gender-neutral Coachella Astronaut roaming around the Empire Polo Club in Indio at 36 feet tall, 57 feet long and 40 feet wide, the latest creation by Los Angeles art studio Poetic Kinetics for the festival.

Fabrication team members Dan Hickey, left, and Erin Havlak work on the frame of “Overview Effect,” while the hands of the moving art installation are suspended from the ceiling of Poetic Kinetics’ studio in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday, March 19, 2019. The installation is shaped like astronaut and will roam the grounds at the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Fabric lead Matthew Schow draws the layout of the vinyl on the hand of the astronaut at Poetic Kinetics’ Los Angeles studio on Wednesday, March 27, 2019. Poetic Kinetics will return to the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio with “Overview Effect,” a moving art installation shaped like an astronaut. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCN­G)

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Derek Welsh, shop manager of Poetic Kinetics, works the frame of the “Overview Effect,” a moving art installation shaped like an astronaut being built by Poetic Kinetics in Los Angeles on Wednesday, March 27, 2019. The astronaut and will roam the grounds at the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCN­G)

The hand of “Overview Effect,” an art installation shaped like an astronaut, is in the foreground while a Poetic Kinetics crew member works on a different part of the sculpture in Los Angeles on Wednesday, March 27, 2019. The astronaut and will roam the grounds at the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCN­G)

A crew member works on the fabric of “Overview Effect,” a moving art installation shaped like an astronaut being built by Poetic Kinetics in Los Angeles on Wednesday, March 20, 2019. Poetic Kinetics will return to the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio with “Overview Effect,” a moving art installation shaped like an astronaut. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCN­G)

Derek Welsh, shop manager of Poetic Kinetics, guides the frame of what will become the art installation “Overview Effect” while Bryan Foley steers the sculpture’s frame at their studio in downtown Los Angeles on Friday, March 15, 2019. Poetic Kinetics will return to the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio with “Overview Effect,” a moving art installation shaped like an astronaut. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCN­G)

Fabrication team member Antonio Gomez-Rubio installs a monitor on the chest of “Overview Effect,” a moving art installation shaped like an astronaut being built by Poetic Kinetics in Los Angeles on Wednesday, March 27, 2019. The astronaut and will roam the grounds at the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Fabrication team members Travis Frye, left, and Antonio Gomez-Rubio move the hand of “Overview Effect” at Poetic Kinetics’ creative studio in downtown Los Angeles on Friday, March 15, 2019. Poetic Kinetics will return to the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio for the first time since 2015 with the roaming art installation shaped like an astronaut. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCN­G)

Fabrication team member Antonio Gomez-Rubio, left, works with shop manager Derek Welsh on the frame of “Overview Effect,” at the Poetic Kinetics studio in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, March 27, 2019. The sculpture, which is shaped like an astronaut, will be at the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio. The roving astronaut will be 36 feet tall, 57 feet long and 40 feet wide. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCN­G)

Patrick Shearn, the creative director of Poetic Kinetics, left, works with shop manager Derek Welsh, on the frame of the “Overview Effect,” at their studio in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, March 27, 2019. The sculpture, which is shaped like an astronaut, will be at the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio. The roving astronaut will be 36 feet tall, 57 feet long and 40 feet wide. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCN­G)

Dan Hickey stands before the base of “Overview Effect,” a moving art installation shaped like an astronaut being built by Poetic Kinetics at their creative studio in downtown Los Angeles on Friday, March 15, 2019. Poetic Kinetics will return to the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCN­G)

Fabric lead Matthew Schow drops the pattern of the skin of the “Overview Effect,” a moving art installation shaped like an astronaut being built by Poetic Kinetics in Los Angeles on Friday, March 15, 2019. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCN­G)

Mike Estes works on cutting out the fabric for “Overview Effect,” an astronaut-shaped roaming sculpture from Poetic Kinetics, in Los Angeles on Wednesday, March 20, 2019. The sculpture is part of the major art installations at the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Patrick Shearn, the creative director of Poetic Kinetics, inspects the frame of the “Overview Effect,” at studio in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday March 27, 2019. The sculpture, which is shaped like an astronaut, will be at the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio. The roving astronaut will be 36 feet tall, 57 feet long and 40 feet wide. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCN­G)

Antonio Gomez-Rubio lowers the frame of “Overview Effect,” an astronaut-shaped moving art installation from Poetic Kinetics, that hangs from the ceiling of Poetic Kinetics’ studio in downtown Los Angeles while crew members examine pieces of the sculpture on Wednesday, March 27, 2019. The astronaut and will roam the grounds at the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

The crew members of Poetic Kinetics look at the progress of “Overview Effect,” outside their studio in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday, March 19, 2019. The sculpture, which is shaped like an astronaut, will be at the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio. The roving astronaut will be 36 feet tall, 57 feet long and 40 feet wide. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCN­G)

The foot of “Overview Effect,” an astronaut-shaped moving art installation from Poetic Kinetics, hangs from the ceiling of Poetic Kinetics’ studio in downtown Los Angeles while crew members examine pieces of the sculpture in March 2019. The astronaut and will roam the grounds at the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCN­G)

Antonio Gomez-Rubio works on the actuator on an arm of “Overview Effect,” a moving art installation shaped like an astronaut being built by Poetic Kinetics at their creative studio in downtown Los Angeles on Friday, March 15, 2019. The actuators will allow the arm and hands of the sculpture to move as it roams the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCN­G)

“Overview Effect,” an art shaped like an astronaut by Poetic Kinetics, roams the festival grounds during the opening day of Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio on Friday, April 12, 2019. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCN­G)

Antonio Gomez-Rubio works on the actuator on an arm of the “Overview Effect,” a moving art installation shaped like an astronaut being built by Poetic Kinetics at their creative studio in downtown Los Angeles on Friday, March 15, 2019. The actuators will allow the arm and hands of the sculpture to move as it roams the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Festival goers dance in front of “Overview Effect,” a roaming art shaped like an astronaut by Poetic Kinetics, as it roams the field during the opening day of Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio on Friday, April 12, 2019. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCN­G)

“Overview Effect,” an art shaped like an astronaut by Poetic Kinetics, roams the festival grounds during the opening day of Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio on Friday, April 12, 2019. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCN­G)

Groups of friends jogged to pose for a photo in front of the astronaut throughout the day. Other people tried to jump up and touch him.

And if you’re getting a sense of deja vu, it’s not just you. It’s a companion piece to 2014’s roving moon man “Escape Velocity,” which is arguably the most iconic art piece in the festival’s 20-year history. “Overview Effect” is the evolution of “Escape Velocity.”

“It’s the same astronaut, it’s just gone off on this journey and returned,” said Patrick Shearn, creative director of Poetic Kinetics.

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Technically, it’s not — the original is at the Science Museum of Minnesota — but the astronaut has traveled around the planets, the moons, the suns and more. The spacesuit is scarred from five years of traveling. Alien insects have splattered its visor. The boots have dust from intergalactic dance floors from far-flung festivals — including the Jupiter Jam and Lasers in a Black Hole, the latter a nod to the terrestrial Lightning in a Bottle — and the astronaut has the wristbands to prove it. At night, it almost turns into a different piece, with two projectors feeding images and video to the screen in its helmet, a dome that is 8 feet in diameter.

Meena Raouf, an engineer at a medical device design firm from Oakland, remembered the original Coachella astronaut and liked its “new metallic aesthetic.”

“I’m a space and science nerd, so this is the kind of art I’m attracted to,” she said after snapping a photo from her perspective as the astronaut’s hands moved.

It’s named “Overview Effect” because of the phenomenon of when astronauts’ awareness shifts, often when they view earth from space for the first time. And as Poetic Kinetics’ astronaut journeyed through the universe, it went through the same thing and came to the conclusion that all life must work together — whether the divide is species, race or geographic — to protect the planet.

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“Art is one of the few ways you can really influence society and make a difference,” Shearn said.

For the 2014 piece, Shearn was inspired by Neil deGrasse Tyson talking about how we as a nation had abandoned our commitment to NASA. The famed astrophysicist spoke about how the space program was a boon for innovation as well as a social glue that bonded the country. It inspired Shearn to get people thinking about the space program and science in general.

“I felt like I’m speaking to the right demographic here. These young kids didn’t grow up through the Space Age. They don’t get what we’re talking about,” he said.

And it resonated, flooding social media feeds as people took selfies with the towering astronaut, becoming even more iconic and setting the stage for its most recent piece, 2015’s “Papilio Merraculous,” better known as the Coachella caterpillar that turned into the Coachella butterfly.

Festival promoter Goldenvoice approached Poetic Kinetics about returning to Coachella to do a different take on the iconic piece for the 20th year.

“I’m really glad that we’re back. It feels good to come back and do a victory lap,” Shearn said.

Down to earth

While outer space inspired the piece, the physical origins of “Overview Effect” are in a large artist loft in downtown Los Angeles called Abundant Sugar, where Poetic Kinetics’ creative studio hums with an artistic energy.

The space, a central hub for the underground L.A. arts scene for a decade, was a launching pad for groups such as Cirque Bezerk, aerial troupe Aerialistic and sculpture artist Sean Sobczak. Many of the artists connected over a bond with the Burning Man festival, where many, including Poetic Kinetics, have exhibited their pieces.

Artwork from “Helix Poeticus,” the Coachella Snail from 2012, is attached to a curved wall. A giant artificial tree with lights is in the center of the space. And you can picture aerialists spinning from the ceiling where a glittery set of fairy wings hangs now.

That creative forest is in juxtaposition to the other side of the space, a workshop where “Overview Effect” was being fabricated last month. The floor is marked in red in a grid shape so the crew could manipulate more than 3,000 feet of liner metal rods to form the sculpture’s frame. Pulleys and chains held a structure of wire mesh in the shape of a big boot from the ceiling. The astronaut is so big that it could not be finished in the studio space. The pieces were put into five 53-foot-long semi trucks and taken to Indio. The first time they were put together in full was on the field.

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And the grassy Empire Polo Club is where Matthew Schow, the project’s fabric lead, first saw the astronaut in 2014.

“This was the inspiration of actually wanting to come and work with them and to be able to come back and do it as a remix version of it is really kind of awesome,” he said while he took a break from working on the details of “Overview Effect,” which is covered in more than 500 yards of fabric in nine colors.

To bring “Overview Effect” to life, it took 12 full-time crew members and an additional 10 members on the audio/visual and fabrics teams. There are even more friends and family on-site to help it navigate the crowds and interact with festival goers. A team on the ground controls its movements, like when the astronaut gives a thumb’s up or a peace sign, via remote control. Inside the astronaut, the cables work not unlike those on a bike that control the brakes or the gears.

“Overview Effect,” the roving astronaut by Poetic Kinetics, roams in front of “Spectra” at the opening day of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio on Friday, April 12, 2019. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

“Overview Effect,” an art shaped like an astronaut by Poetic Kinetics, roams the festival grounds during the opening day of Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio on Friday, April 12, 2019. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCN­G)

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The gallery will resume inseconds

“Overview Effect,” an art shaped like an astronaut by Poetic Kinetics, roams the festival grounds during the opening day of Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio on Friday, April 12, 2019. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCN­G)

“Overview Effect,” the roaming astronaut moves near rainbow tower “Spectra” at the opening day of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio on Friday, April 12, 2019. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

“Overview Effect,” a roving artwork shaped like an astronaut by Poetic Kinetics, is reflected on a window of the Hazardus Interstellar Prerfessional Operations (H.I.P.O.), an art installation from artist duo Dedo Vabo, during the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio on Saturday, April 13, 2019. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

A security personnel rests under shade of the foot of “Overview Effect,” a roving artwork shaped like an astronaut by Poetic Kinetics, during the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio on Saturday, April 13, 2019. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

“Overview Effect,” a roving astronaut from art studio Poetic Kinetics, gives a peace sign as it make a stop near the Sarbale Ke towers, by artist Francis Kere, during Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio on Friday, April 12, 2019. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

“Overview Effect,” a roving art shaped like an astronaut by Poetic Kinetics roams during Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio on Saturday, April 13, 2019. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Festival goers dance in front of “Overview Effect,” a roaming art shaped like an astronaut by Poetic Kinetics, as it roams the field during the opening day of Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio on Friday, April 12, 2019. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

But the massive creation is not only for the masses at the festival. Yes, it will be instantly identifiable in photos from the festival, from news coverage to Instagram selfies, but people following along at home can become part of the art this year.

“We found that what brings the piece to life and gives it the most traction is being able to interact off-field,” said Desiree Barlow, public relations director for Poetic Kinetics.

Anyone can take a close-up of their face, post it to Instagram or Facebook with a name they want to be on the name tag (made up of three flat-screen TVs put together) with the hashtag #PKmission19 for a chance to be featured in the piece.

“As an artist, I try to embrace it like it’s another tool, another color paint, another thing I would keep in my arsenal,” Shearn said about the social interaction.

And the interactive aspect reiterates the mission of the Coachella Astronaut’s return to earth, bringing everyone together, no matter where they are.

“How can we get these kids thinking a little differently or looking up from their screen and noticing that something actually got made here,” Shearn said.

Vanessa Franko is the Digital Director of Entertainment for the Southern California News Group. The lure of palm trees and covering pop culture brought her to The Press-Enterprise in Riverside in 2006. Vanessa has reported on everything from the Palm Springs International Film Festival to the MLB All-Star Game as a reporter, photographer, videographer and on-camera personality. She's won awards for her coverage of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and for crime reporting in her home state of Maryland. Vanessa studied multimedia storytelling as a Knight Digital Media Center fellow in Dec. 2011 and has taught college courses in digital journalism. She's seen shows at every major concert venue in Southern California, but most special was when Paul McCartney played the high-desert roadhouse Pappy & Harriet's in Pioneertown for a couple hundred fans in Oct. 2016. Her album collection numbers in the thousands (including a couple hundred on vinyl) and when she isn't hunting for records, she and her husband like to check out the best in Southern California craft beer and watch sports. She also had a cameo in the 1992 Atlanta Braves highlight film, Lightning Strikes Twice!